Political Science Research Resources

The library has recently purchased online editions of the second China’s Reform Studies series.

This series was written by Chinese economists with the purpose of reviewing and analyzing aspects of China’s reform since 1978. The series covers rural reform, structural evolution, enterprise restructuring, local governance, specialized markets, institutional innovation and the micro-foundation of a market economy.

Titles in the series are available via the library catalogue and the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Titles in this edition include:

The German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), spanning three subsequent funding periods, is a long-term effort to examine the German federal elections of 2009, 2013 and 2017. Funded by the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the project aims to track the German electoral process over an extended period of time and at an unprecedented level of detail.

All data generated by the project are treated as a public good and are made freely accessible to social science researchers worldwide for download .

English-language versions of the most important datasets collected during the 2009 German federal election and their documentation are available, or soon to be made available, free of charge.

The Political Finance Database is a leading source of comparative information on political finance regulations. It includes laws and regulations from 179 individual countries.

The database answers 43 questions on political finance within 4 broad categories:

1. Bans and limits on private income
2. Public funding
3. Regulations of spending
4. Reporting, oversight and sanctions

The information in this database shows the use of different types of regulations in individual countries, but it can also be used to compare the prevalence of various provisions between countries and regions.

The JHA Archive contains bibliographic records and full-text documents on EU Justice and Home Affairs policy dating back to 1976 when the Trevi Group was set up (Trevi was ad hoc intergovernmental cooperation on Terrorism, Radicalism and Violence, and grew into formal European political cooperation in the former Third Pillar after the Maastricht Treaty).

Here are a few examples of reports that you can find:

-Meeting of experts on the early warning and rapid reaction system

-Conflict prevention: Report by the Secretary General/High Representative and the Commission

-The prevention and control of organised crime: A European Union strategy for the beginning of the new Millennium

See also highlighted documents and the JHA Archive’s list of keywords used to categorize documents.

Please note that E-STAT, a portal into Statistics Canada’s Census of Population and socioeconomic data, will be archived on June 30, 2012. E-STAT will remain accessible as is until June 30, 2013, but its content will no longer be updated. It will be discontinued July 1, 2013.

As an alternative, consider using the CANSIM (Canadian Socio-economic Information Management) database or visit Statistics Canada’s census portal for current information.

LibX is a browser plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Use it to easily search the SFU Library Catalogue and Google Scholar from within any web page.

Do you search for books on Amazon? Do you use Google to find articles? By downloading LibX, you can easily connect from the Web to library resources.

When browsing the web, simply highlight the title of the book that interests you and right click with your mouse to find the option of searching for the book in the SFU Library catalogue. Or, highlight search terms and drag and drop them into the LibX toolbar.

When searching for articles on Google or skimming the Wikipedia references, look at for the “L” cue that indicates that the article is available in full-text via SFU Library.

See SFU Library LibX Browser Plugin for more information, including a link to the LibX tool.

Looking for comparative economic data? Check out the World Competitiveness Yearbook.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook aggregates statistics from international organizations such as the World Bank, OECD, United Nations, WTO, UNESCO and the IMF, to rank countries according to their competitiveness. Though the focus is on sustaining enterprises, the criteria cover not only economic performance but government efficiency and infrastructure. Among the 327 criteria used to rank 58 countries are number of women in parliament, income distribution, aging of society, water resources and health expenditure. Hard data is based on official statistics, soft data is based on the WCY’s Executive Opinion Survey. Any combination of data can be searched for the past 15 years.

Search tip: Check the Direct Download box to access information that is older than 5 years or to search multiple criteria at once.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today submitted an application for Palestine to become a United Nations member state.

PA President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly.

For more news on this event, check out the SFU Library’s news databases Press Display, LexisNexis and the Canadian Newsstand.

For data and facts on the Palestinian Territories, check out the SFU Library’s databases Europa World and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

For a history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, check out books on the topic in the SFU Library catalogue.

From:  http://www.hstinbc.ca/

The Independent Panel on the HST has released its report.

“It’s Your Decision” examines the positives and negatives of the HST and the PST/GST sales tax systems based on their impact on families, businesses, the economy, and the Provincial Government.

Since January, the Panel has gathered detailed information about each sales tax to present to British Columbians.

The Panel has:

-Reviewed and analyzed the positives and negatives of the HST and PST/GST
-Commissioned an economic study by Ernie Stokes, Managing Partner with The Centre for Spatial Economics, in Toronto
-Reviewed and considered almost 90 submissions
-Produced the report: It’s Your decision

The Panel’s report has been issued directly to British Columbians to provide useful information to assist voters in making their decision in the mail-in referendum ballot on June 24, 2011.

You can read the report online. Print copies are also available at the SFU Library.

Looking for current constitutions? Check out World Constitutions Illustrated.

From the publisher:

This collection contains the current constitution of every country in the world in its original language. For countries where multiple original-language versions exist, World Constitutions Illustrated provides each one. Also included with each constitution is at least one English translation.

World Constitutions Illustrated is working to identify and acquire the source documents for every historical constitution for every country. As historical documents are identified, they are be added to the constitutional timeline for each country. Documents identified but not yet acquired are listed to provide a documentary history of the constitution’s development. For every constitutional document, researchers will find the original text, amending laws, consolidated text, and important related texts. This database will also link you to scholarly articles and commentary, and provide a bibliography of select constitutional books available elsewhere.

In addition to world constitutions, this collection contains more than 800 classic books on constitutions, constitutional history and jurisprudence, and political and economic history, as well as over one dozen legal periodicals focusing on constitutional law.